Yoga Teacher Building His Own Tiny Home on Wheels

I love your website! It’s helped me dive deeper into the tiny house community and expand my knowledge so much to help with my own build. Here’s a little about me and my story:

I’m 24 years old and teach yoga at the Mt. Washington Resort in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. My apartment lease ran out at the end of August so I’ve been camping in the beautiful fall foliage while I work four days out of the week and the other three days I drive 2 hours down to Dover where I’m building the house.

I first heard of tiny houses about a year and a half ago. I really fell in love with them when I was in the middle of a cleanse and at a loss of what to do with myself, so I started researching them; the seed had been planted. From there my passion grew more and more gathering all the info I could about plans, layouts, building practices etc… I started teaching myself how to use sketch up and design everything. I would scour craigslist everyday looking for a suitable trailer until one day last summer I finally found the one. Its about 7.5′ x 20′. I got it for $400 from a guy in Maine. My friend Seth helped tow it to my parents house where I proceeded to spend the summer greasing the bearings, rewiring brakes/lights, and the labor intensive process of grinding all the rust off. I covered the trailer in POR and Seth welded reinforcements all over.

Fast forward to this summer. My sketch up plans finalized and tools acquired through family and home depot have allowed me to really get going. I constructed the floor sometime around May and bolted it to the trailer with carriage bolts. In July I constructed the walls and put them up. September I finished sheathing the walls and the roof rafters went up. This current week I’m putting the rest of the ZIP panels on the roof. It’s been such an amazing experience learning everything from scratch. More than anything I love how rewarding the work has been and the feeling of aliveness my life has been imbued with as a result of this venture.

Its mostly been me working on the house with friends helping here and there when they’re free. The framing is 16 oc with 2x4s and the roof is with 2x6s. I got my all but two of my windows from the local reStore and my doors off craigslist. The house will run off solar, have a rain catchment system, and a compost toilet. Heat will come from a wood stove from graystove.com.

I was recently featured on NH Chronicle in a segment they did on Tiny Houses too!​ I’m hoping to move it really soon cause its getting pretty cold camping. I’ve got a few things to finish up and I’m waiting to hear back from someone I spoke to about renting their land in Bethlehem.

Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!

Related

Facebook Comments

love your story, your TH design and your components. I was looking at a navigator sardine wood stove . It is $1300 with the glass window, which i love. yours is cool looking and a lower price. I will look into this more. I like the looks of the solar generator too. Keep up informed of your progress John 🙂 happy building:)

The trailer looks like it was salvaged from a box or travel trailer. I hope it will hold the weight of a tiny house because if it was, it was never designed for it.
Skimp and cut corners anywhere else if you need to, but never, never, NEVER skimp on the trailer. It is your foundation and a frame that was made to hold an aluminum box may very well fail under the much greater weight of a house.

The trailer was salvaged from a travel trailer, similar to that of the trailer tinyrevolution.us used and also a few other builds I have encountered. The GVW marked on the tongue is rated for 20,000 lbs. I have also verified the axles as being adequate to hold the weight of the house upon examination of the bolt patterns and diameter. I decided to go this route because it made the most sense financially for me. As you can see I added reinforcements and I will soon be adding more before the maiden voyage. I’m no expert but I’m doing the best with what I’ve got and will certainly be as thorough as possible before putting this on the road. Thanks, I really appreciate your concern!

John , love the post and your blog. The structure is very similar to the one
I m planning to start next month. Could you tell me the height of the two side walls. Thanks. Will be following your progress

The content and information here is for entertainment and should not be taken as professional advice. While we strive to provide accurate and helpful information, we are not professionals. The owner of this website disclaims all warranties expressed or implied regarding the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of the information provided.

When considering buying/selling from this website or any 3rd party websites linked always be sure to deal with people locally to avoid scams. Do not wire money in any way without first seeing the home (or other product), checking title, and doing your proper due diligence.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.